Yes, all day today, outside! The forecast was for off and on clouds and some rain, but we woke to a completely clear blue sky. I carried the deck furniture up from the basement of the barn and we had our morning cappuccino sitting in hot sun. It snowed yesterday, so this was an unexpected treat.
Then I went for the first bike ride of the season, and as soon as I got home, David and I went for what Eric and I, years ago, coined a hikette — more than a walk, less than a hike. We drove to the top of Blake’s Hill Road and walked on Mountain Road, an old woods road that runs just north of the small peak, Saddleback Mountain. From Mountain Road, we got to the trail that took us to the summit of Saddleback, where a vein of marble cuts across the granite outcroppings, and other hikers have created cairns that look like a band of motionless people among the grass and rocks as you come around the last corner of the trail. We had a snack on the ledges overlooking the White Mountains to the north, then hiked home.
It did cloud up and start to rain a bit, but not enough to keep me out of the yard. I cleaned up the wood pile, broke dead stalks off perennials, and looked at my spinach and radish and pea sprouts, the peas making a sheen of green along the line of the fence.
Now I’m on the porch, writing my first blog post of the spring outdoors. The buds on the maple are thick and fuzzy and red. The geese who come into the farm pond across the street in the evenings just honked along their descent. It’s warm enough to sit out here with only a light jacket. This feels magical. An entire day outside, when yesterday it snowed.
Grace Mattern 